DESCRIPTION

The cgetent() function extracts the capability record name from the data-
base specified by the null-terminated file array db_array and returns a
pointer to a copy of it in buf. cgetent() will first look for files end-
ing in ".db" (see cap_mkdb(1)) before accessing the ASCII version of the
capability database. buf must be retained through all subsequent calls to
cgetmatch(), cgetcap(), cgetnum(), cgetstr(), and cgetustr(), but may
then be free'd. On success 0 is returned, 1 if the returned record con-
tains an unresolved tc expansion, -1 if the requested record couldn't be
found, -2 if a system error occurred (couldn't open or read a file, for
example) also setting errno, and -3 if a potential reference loop is
detected (see tc= comments below).
cgetset() enables the addition of a character buffer containing a single
capability record entry to the capability database. Conceptually, the en-
try is added as the first "file" in the database, and is therefore
searched first on the call to cgetent(). The entry is passed in ent. If
ent is NULL, the current entry is removed from the database. cgetset()
must precede the database traversal. It must be called before cgetent().
If a sequential access is being performed (see below), it must be called
before the first sequential access call (cgetfirst() or cgetnext()), or
be directly preceded by a cgetclose() call. On success 0 is returned and
-1 on failure.
cgetmatch() will return 0 if name is one of the names of the capability
record buf, -1 if not.
cgetcap() searches the capability record buf for the capability cap with
type type. A type is specified using any single character. If a colon
(':') is used, an untyped capability will be searched for (see below for
explanation of types). A pointer to the value of cap in buf is returned
on success or NULL if the requested capability couldn't be found. The end
of the capability value is signaled by a ':' or ASCII NUL (see below for
capability database syntax).
cgetnum() retrieves the value of the numeric capability cap from the ca-
pability record pointed to by buf. The numeric value is returned in the
long pointed to by num. On success 0 is returned, -1 if the requested
numeric capability couldn't be found.
cgetstr() retrieves the value of the string capability cap from the capa-
bility record pointed to by buf. A pointer to a decoded, NUL-terminated,
malloc'd copy of the string is returned in the char * pointed to by str.
The number of characters in the decoded string (not including the trail-
ing NUL) is returned on success, -1 if the requested string capability
couldn't be found, or -2 if a system error was encountered (storage allo-
cation failure).
cgetustr() is identical to cgetstr() except that it does not expand spe-
cial characters, but rather returns each character of the capability
string literally.
cgetfirst() and cgetnext() comprise a function group that provides for
sequential access of the null-terminated array of file names, db_array.
cgetfirst() returns the first record in the database and resets the ac-
cess to the first record. cgetnext() returns the next record in the data-
base with respect to the record returned by the previous cgetfirst() or
cgetnext() call. If there is no such previous call, the first record in
the database is returned. Each record is returned in a malloc'd copy
pointed to by buf. tc expansion is done (see tc= comments below). Upon
completion of the database 0 is returned; 1 is returned upon successful
return of a record with possibly more remaining (the end of the database
has not been reached yet); 2 is returned if the record contains an un-
resolved tc expansion; -1 is returned if an system error occurred; and -2
is returned if a potential reference loop is detected (see tc= comments
below). Upon completion of database (0 return), the database is closed.
cgetclose() closes the file descriptor and resets state used for sequen-
tial access. If neither the cgetfirst() nor the cgetnext() functions have
been called, cgetclose() has no effect. Note that it does not erase the
buffer pushed by a call to cgetset(), nor does it free the buffer allo-
cated by cgetent().
cgetusedb() allows the user to specify whether to use or ignore database
files ending in ".db". If usedb is zero, files ending in ".db" will be
ignored. If usedb is non-zero, files ending in ".db" will be used in
preference to the text version. The default is to process ".db" files.
cgetusedb() returns the previous setting.

Capability database syntax

Capability databases are normally ASCII and may be edited with standard
text editors. Blank lines and lines beginning with a '#' are comments and
are ignored. Lines ending with a '\' indicate that the next line is a
continuation of the current line; the '\' and following newline are ig-
nored. Long lines are usually continued onto several physical lines by
ending each line except the last with a '\'.
Capability databases consist of a series of records, one per logical
line. Each record contains a variable number of colon-separated fields
(capabilities). Empty fields consisting entirely of whitespace characters
(spaces and tabs) are ignored.
The first capability of each record specifies its names, separated by '|'
characters. These names are used to reference records in the database. By
convention, the last name is usually a comment and is not intended as a
lookup tag. For example, the "vt100" record from the termcap database be-
gins:
d0|vt100|vt100-am|vt100am|dec vt100:
giving four names that can be used to access the record.
The remaining non-empty capabilities describe a set of (name, value)
bindings, consisting of a name optionally followed by a typed value:
name typeless [boolean] capability name is present [true]
nameTvalue capability (name, T) has value value
name@ no capability name exists
nameT@ capability (name, T) does not exist
Names consist of one or more characters. Names may contain any character
except ':', but it's usually best to restrict them to the printable char-
acters and avoid use of graphics like '#', '=', '%', '@', etc. Types are
single characters used to separate capability names from their associated
typed values. Types may be any character except a ':'. Typically, graph-
ics like '#', '=', '%', etc. are used. Values may be any number of char-
acters and may contain any character except ':'.

Capability database semantics

Capability records describe a set of (name, value) bindings. Names may
have multiple values bound to them. Different values for a name are dis-
tinguished by their types. cgetcap() will return a pointer to a value of
a name given the capability name and the type of the value.
The types '#' and '=' are conventionally used to denote numeric and
string typed values, but no restriction on those types is enforced. The
functions cgetnum() and cgetstr() can be used to implement the tradition-
al syntax and semantics of '#' and '='. Typeless capabilities are typi-
cally used to denote boolean objects with presence or absence indicating
truth and false values respectively. This interpretation is conveniently
represented by:
(getcap(buf, name, ':') != NULL)
A special capability, tc= name, is used to indicate that the record
specified by name should be substituted for the tc capability. tc capa-
bilities may interpolate records which also contain tc capabilities and
more than one tc capability may be used in a record. A tc expansion scope
(i.e., where the argument is searched for) contains the file in which the
tc is declared and all subsequent files in the file array.
When a database is searched for a capability record, the first matching
record in the search is returned. When a record is scanned for a capabil-
ity, the first matching capability is returned; the capability :nameT@:
will hide any following definition of a value of type T for name; and the
capability :name@: will prevent any following values of name from being
seen.
These features combined with tc capabilities can be used to generate
variations of other databases and records by either adding new capabili-
ties, overriding definitions with new definitions, or hiding following
definitions via '@' capabilities.

cgetnum() and cgetstr() syntax and semantics

Two types are predefined by cgetnum() and cgetstr():
name#number numeric capability name has value numbername=string string capability name has value stringname#@ the numeric capability name does not exist
name=@ the string capability name does not exist
Numeric capability values may be given in one of three numeric bases. If
the number starts with either '0x' or '0X' it is interpreted as a hexade-
cimal number (both upper and lower case a-f may be used to denote the ex-
tended hexadecimal digits). Otherwise, if the number starts with a '0' it
is interpreted as an octal number. Otherwise the number is interpreted as
a decimal number.
String capability values may contain any character. Non-printable ASCII
codes, new lines, and colons may be conveniently represented by the use
of escape sequences:
^X ('X' & 037) control-X
\b, \B (ASCII 010) backspace
\t, \T (ASCII 011) tab
\n, \N (ASCII 012) line feed (newline)
\f, \F (ASCII 014) form feed
\r, \R (ASCII 015) carriage return
\e, \E (ASCII 027) escape
\c, \C (:) colon
\\ (\) back slash
\^ (^) caret
\nnn (ASCII octal nnn)
A '\' followed by up to three octal digits directly specifies the numeric
code for a character. The use of ASCII NULs, while easily encoded, causes
all sorts of problems and must be used with care since NULs are typically
used to denote the end of strings; many applications use '\200' to
represent a NUL.

EXAMPLES

example|an example of binding multiple values to names:\
:foo%bar:foo^blah:foo@:\
:abc%xyz:abc^frap:abc$@:\
:tc=more:
The capability foo has two values bound to it (bar of type '%' and blah
of type '^') and any other value bindings are hidden. The capability abc
also has two values bound but only a value of type '$' is prevented from
being defined in the capability record more.
file1:
new|new_record|a modification of "old":\
:fript=bar:who-cares@:tc=old:blah:tc=extensions:
file2:
old|old_record|an old database record:\
:fript=foo:who-cares:glork#200:
The records are extracted by calling cgetent() with file1 preceding
file2. In the capability record new in file1, fript=bar overrides the de-
finition of fript=foo interpolated from the capability record old in
file2, who-cares@ prevents the definition of any who-cares definitions in
old from being seen, glork#200 is inherited from old, and blah and any-
thing defined by the record extensions is added to those definitions in
old. Note that the position of the fript=bar and who-cares@ definitions
before tc=old is important here. If they were after, the definitions in
old would take precedence.

DIAGNOSTICS

cgetent(), cgetset(), cgetmatch(), cgetnum(), cgetstr(), cgetustr(),
cgetfirst(), and cgetnext() return a value greater than or equal to 0 on
success and a value less than 0 on failure. cgetcap() returns a character
pointer on success and a NULL on failure.
cgetent() and cgetset() may fail and set errno for any of the errors
specified for the library functions fopen(3), fclose(3), open(2), and
close(2).
cgetent(), cgetset(), cgetstr(), and cgetustr() may fail and set errno as
follows:
[ENOMEM] No memory to allocate.

SEE ALSO

BUGS

Colon (':') characters cannot be used in names, types, or values.
There are no checks for tc=name loops in cgetent().
The buffer added to the database by a call to cgetset() is not unique to
the database but is rather prepended to any database used.
MirOS BSD #10-current April 19, 1994 4